Drinks such as tea, coffee or red wine, and some food, as well as smoking, cause colorization on teeth. Lack of regular brushing, failure to effectively use brush due to orthodontics problems, and lack of dental floss usage would cause colorizations and tartar formation. In addition to all these, if you had used tetracycline, which is an antibiotic, it may have caused permanent colorizations on your teeth. Another reason is defective initial formation of teeth. As a result, tooth surface looks gritty, and is discoloured.
How do we whiten teeth via bleaching treatment, does it do any harm?
In whitening treatment, no damaging process is done on the teeth like painting or loss of substance on the teeth. Here is how it works: Tooth pattern is made of interconnected dentin root canals. Via these root canals, teeth continuously suck liquids from within the mouth. As our diet is predominantly made of coloured food beverages, teeth get darker in time. In whitening, coloured liquid within such root canals are extracted, and allowed to be filled back with colourless liquid. After the process, it is recommended to avoid all coloured food and beverages for 48 hours. Because, bleaching creates non-permanent micro passageways on the enamel, enabling bleaching gel to flow through dentin root canals. After that, enamel renews itself, closing such passageways.
Before bleaching teeth, we clean the tooth surface, we remove outer colorizations, and clean the tartars. We identify the existing tooth color. If the tooth is very dark and the desired whiteness is too much, we apply home bleaching and office bleaching together. In not-so-dark teeth, either system can be applicable, according to preference of the patient.
Home bleaching:
We take measurements on the patient, and prepare plates fitting patient’s mouth, within an hour. The gel to be placed in mouth within the plate while going to bed at night is given to the patient together with the plates.
It is to be applied for 10-15 days. (2-8 hours per day)
Reinforcement may be necessary 1-2 years later.
Color of teeth is whitened by 7-8 tones.
During the application of 10-15 days, no tea, coffee, cola or red wine should be consumed, as they adversely affect the application.
Office bleaching:
Bleaching by applying gel on teeth at the clinic. During this process, laser, halogen, or rays of various wavelengths may be used, in order to activate the gel. Applied by the dentist at the clinic. Application takes approximately 45 minutes. Application continues on other days, until achieving the desired color. Color is lightened by 5-6 tones. During the application, no tea, coffee, cola or red wine should be consumed, as they adversely affect the application. There are some tooth colorizations and cases of flourazis which don’t respond to such bleaching systems, formed as a result of tetracycline usage. For broken or cracked teeth, or teeth with huge filling, which are not suitable for bleaching, neither bleaching system is used. Such colorizations require prosthetic approach.
